'/'//' .17 ////. /v/" ///>//< / iti-it^nifH i- /,/ ///, //, . 



though i-i.iuj);ii - ;iii\c!y -lo\\ ly, on solidified blood-tenUB, and also in 

 milk, which does not Income coagulated. On jotato it develops with 

 difficulty, lnt now and again, after some day- : in- ul.atioii, a moist- 

 looking streak of a jKile liufl' colour may lie observed. If gelatine 'e 

 inoculated, growth occurs slowly at the temi>er;itnre of the room, and, 

 after a time, the medium tends to become liquefied. 



Growth on agar can be carried on week after week for a great 

 number of generations, but after a do/en removes or so, its morpho- 

 logical and biological characteristics are found to have Income ~<>iur 

 what altered. An account of these variations and of the |itholo^ical 

 histology of the disease I propose to publish subsequently. 



In similar fashion the pathogenetic projterties of the micro-organism 

 appear to become gradually weakened, but by related intra-peritoneal 

 inoculations in the guinea-pig its virulence may be regained. 



The injection lieneath the skin of the abdomen in a dog weighing 

 7 kilos, of 1 c.c. of a broth culture seven days old, derived in turn 

 from an agar sub-culture, induced an attack of distemper, which 

 terminated fatally in about a week from the time of inoculation. In 

 a large number of other dogs experimented on by ^Jillais or myself a 

 generally non-fatal attack has followed on inoculation of the nasal 

 mucous membrane. 



Specially characteristic of the disease intentionally produced is the 

 fact that the animal exhibits during the attack a marked and pro- 

 gressive loss of weight. Of other symptoms of the malady so well 

 known to all dog-breeders, those whiub are usually most marked are 

 the result of more or less acute inflammation of the various mucous 

 surfaces. 



On post-mortem examination I have generally found the whole 

 respiratory tract to be specially affected, the lungs sometimes showing 

 pneumonic consolidation throughout almost their entire extent. The 

 trachea is apt to be congested, ami to contain a quantity of mucus, 

 while the eyes and nose are blocked with a purulent or mueo-pnrulent 

 discharge. By making agar plate-cultivations from the exudation from 

 the lungs, from the tracheal mucus, or from the nasal secretion, the 

 specific bacillus may be isolated from the first two situations, often in 

 almost pure culture. 



Examining animals which have died from distemper, whether result- 

 ing from experimental inoculation or contracted in the ordinary fashion, 

 I have never succeeded in obtaining cultures either from the blood 

 obtained from the heart with aseptic precautions, or from tile liver, the 

 gall-bladder, the kidney, or the spleen. Pressure of other work since 

 joining the .Medical Staff of the Local (Government J-Joard. has prevented 

 my having the opportunity of examining even inoculated animals at 

 intermediate stages of the disease in severe forms, or, doubtless, it might 

 have been found possible to isolate the bacillus from one or other of 



